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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29542086">Pop!</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeremyyyberryyy/pseuds/jeremyyyberryyy'>jeremyyyberryyy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>little minho oneshots [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Stray Kids (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age Regression/De-Aging, Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, Everyone Loves Lee Minho | Lee Know, Fluff, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, OT8, Polyamory, Sad Lee Minho | Lee Know, Scared Lee Minho, little!Minho, littlespace</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 22:54:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,834</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29542086</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeremyyyberryyy/pseuds/jeremyyyberryyy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It has been a rough day for Minho. Not only had they been forced to play the balloon game at an interview, but he was also stuck at the grocery store, feeling like he could slip into Littlespace at any moment. Lucky for him, his boyfriends are always there to hug him and wipe away his tears.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bang Chan/Everyone, Han Jisung | Han/Everyone, Hwang Hyunjin/Everyone, Kim Seungmin/Everyone, Lee Felix (Stray Kids)/Everyone, Lee Minho | Lee Know/Everyone, Seo Changbin/Everyone, Stray Kids Ensemble/Everyone, Yang Jeongin | I.N/Everyone</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>little minho oneshots [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2165811</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>149</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Pop!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this was just a cute idea i was thinking about, so i figured i would write it down haha!</p><p>tw/cw: crying, littespace, self harm (very, very minor though)<br/>this is mostly just fluff. minho gets a little scared in the beginning, but everything turns out okay in the end!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Minho hadn’t even wanted to to go the store, but they all insisted that someone help Felix. He now wishes he would’ve protested more. Minho wants nothing more than to be back at home right now.</p><p>Today had been rough. They had another interview in the late morning and if that wasn’t stressful enough, the hosts asked them to play the balloon game.</p><p>Minho is not a fan of the balloon game. All the loud sounds scare him and the anticipation of the balloons popping is terrifying. </p><p>Overall, it has not been a great day. </p><p>Minho can still feel the anxiety swirling in his chest that never went away after the balloon game. He knows this week has been stressful for him, but usually, he would have calmed down by now.</p><p>He tries to stay coherent enough to navigate his way through the isles and find the food Chan had instructed him to get.</p><p>Minho spots the orange juice and begins grabbing all the items he needs.</p><p>Once he’s done, he goes to meet his boyfriend at the front of the store, near the checkout. His boyfriend acknowledges him and goes back to grabbing things down from the shelves and placing them in the cart.</p><p>Minho sets his groceries down in the cart and stands awkwardly next to it. He can feel the buzzing underneath his skin and is trying not to let whatever it is, consume him fully.</p><p>The longer Minho zones out, the fuzzier his head starts getting. But, he shakes it off. He can’t slip here. God, he should’ve just stayed home.</p><p>His boyfriend is still searching through the produce and grabbing things for them and the rest of their boyfriends. So he doesn’t notice the way Minho is caught deep in thought and completely zoned out from his surroundings.</p><p>Suddenly, a child walks by, and Minho’s eyes are immediately drawn to the stuffed animal clutched in the small boy's arms. It’s a cat stuffie. And Minho can feel his heart swell with happiness at seeing the toy.</p><p>He keeps his eyes trained on the cat toy as the boy walks away, wishing he had a toy exactly like it. </p><p>Sadly, the kid and his mother are on their way out of the store, so Minho doesn’t get to see the cat stuffed animal for long.</p><p>Minho almost lets out a whimper when the toy disappears from his sight.</p><p>Luckily, now that the stuffed animal is out of view, Minho realizes how close he was to slipping. He pinches the side of his arm, just to give enough pain to snap himself out of his foggy mindset.</p><p>Out of nowhere, a loud racket is heard. Felix’s eyes train towards the cause of the noise, which happened to just be boxes falling down at the other side of the store.</p><p>However, Minho doesn't glace up and has to violently dig his fingernails into his arms to stop himself from letting out a whimper. He doesn’t register the sound as boxes falling over, but instead as a giant balloon popping. Realistically, he knows there is no giant balloon at the grocery store, but that does nothing to calm the irrational fear and panic coursing through his body.</p><p>Minho can feel the need to slip increase greatly. While he can’t control when he feels Little, Minho generally can control when he slips and can almost always pull himself out of Littlespace if needed. But today, he feels the feeling creeping upon him from all the frights he had at the interview and from the interview itself. He feels like he is unable to stop himself from gradually slipping into his headspace out of fear, no matter how much his coherent mind protests.</p><p>Just then, Felix starts talking, asking him something about which type of corn to get. Minho could not care less about the corn and can barely even focus on what his boyfriend is saying to him.</p><p>“Lix?” Minho interrupts, clearing his throat.</p><p>“Y-,” Felix is cut off by Minho hurriedly continuing, now having gotten his attention.</p><p>“Can we leave?” he asks with a slight edge to his voice. He is almost desperate to get out of here. He knows they haven’t bought any of the groceries and that the cart is full of unpaid items, but he isn't thinking rationally and just wants to get out. </p><p>“What do you- Why? What’s wrong?” Felix questions in confusion at Minho wanting to leave so suddenly.</p><p>“Felix, I-,“ Minho continues in a whisper after stepping in closer to Felix.</p><p>“I’m g- going t-to slip,” he says in an extremely shaky voice, a little above a whisper while glancing around nervously.</p><p>Minho gulps and waits for Felix to respond. He doesn’t know if he can do this. He wants to get out of here. He wants to go home. He wants that stupid cat plushie. And, most of all, he wants a fucking hug.</p><p>“Oh, fuck,” Felix curses in English.</p><p>“Um- okay. Okay. Okay. Let's- Let's get you out of here,” Felix says, putting an arm around Minho.</p><p>Minho closes his eyes, focusing all his energy on not slipping.</p><p>Felix hurries over to the cashier and makes up some jumbled excuse of forgetting his wallet and asking them to watch the cart for them while they run home and get it.</p><p>Then, Felix quickly rushes to the door with his arm around Minho, lightly pushing on the small of his back to get him to move.</p><p>Once outside of the store, Felix turns Minho’s shoulders to get a look at his boyfriend. </p><p>When Minho fully turns, another loud thud echoes on the sidewalk. It’s probably just another box or maybe a watermelon rolling onto the ground, but Minho immediately has his eyes snap open in fear and his body violently flinch.</p><p>Felix sees how Minho looks up at him with watery eyes and is about to hug him when Minho steps forward and latches onto Felix in an embrace. He whimpers as another sound is heard and Felix tightens his hold around the boy, rubbing up and down his back in a soothing manner.</p><p>When the two get home, Minho won’t stop flinching at every loud noise and his body continues to tremble. Minho doesn’t utter one word and continues to grasp onto Felix with a hand curled in the front of his shirt.</p><p>On the way back, Felix had connected the dots and realized that it was the loud noise they first hear in the store that scared Minho. He feels stupid for not having realized sooner. Minho must’ve been terrified of the balloon game they all had played and then been on edge the rest of the day. That’s what had caused him to slip at the loud noises.</p><p>When they shuffle in through the door, Chan’s face morphs into a concerned frown at seeing Minho tucked into Felix’s side.</p><p>“What happened to you and Min, sunshine?” asks Chan.</p><p>Before Felix can open his mouth, a crash sounds from the kitchen, and Jisung curses, evidently dropping something while he was attempting to make dinner with Jeongin and Changbin. </p><p>When Minho hears the sound, the whimper rising in his throat turns into a loud sob, tears now streaming down his face while he desperately clutches at Felix.</p><p>Felix instantly clings back onto Minho and pulls his body in towards his chest. This makes Minho cry even harder. </p><p>The sounds of distress filter into the kitchen and soon everybody is rushing out towards the entrance. They first look towards Felix, who the spot first, but upon seeing no evidence of tears, they look towards Minho. All of them gasp and look in worry and concern when he lets out another shuddering sob.</p><p>Meanwhile, Minho is just focusing on clinging to Felix’s body as best as he can. Being in such a vulnerable headspace, the loud noise scared him even more than the balloons had earlier. He couldn’t think clearly. All he knew was that he was scared, and sobbed harder at all the memories of the stressful day and the balloons. </p><p>“Baby?” Seungmin questions softly, approaching his two boyfriends still standing in the door.</p><p>Minho flinches when he lays a hand on his shoulder, so Seungmin quickly retracts his hand and instead places it on Lix’s shoulder, leading them both to the couch.</p><p>Minho’s sobs have calmed down, but every once in a while he lets out a tiny whimper.</p><p>“What happened?” Chan asks once again.</p><p>Felix explains everything that happened at the store and they all feel bad for not realizing how much the balloons had scared him. Chan wishes he had looked out for his boyfriends more, knowing that Hyunjin and even Jisung disliked the game as well. And he had to admit, himself, that the popping of the balloons was very loud and startling. So he feels bad not noticing it had affected Minho that much.</p><p>Everybody feels bad (even though it’s none of their faults) and Seungmin hesitates to touch him again. This time, having calmed down, Minho doesn’t flinch away and turns to look with teary, wide eyes at the rest of his boyfriends.</p><p>The Little's cheeks grow red from all the attention and he lets out a whine. The others chuckle at their boyfriend’s adorableness and Jisung bops his noise.</p><p>“Cuddle pile, love?” asks Changbin, cocking his head at their baby, not sure how young he was.</p><p>Minho only nods his head, uttering a small, “P’ease” before hiding his face back in Felix’s neck.</p><p>Changbin grins and carefully pulls Minho away from Felix and into his arms instead. Minho lets out a sound of protest but quickly settles on Changbin's lap, sucking his thumb. </p><p>Felix looks scathingly at Changbin for taking away his baby, but Changbin just laughs, kissing Felix’s cheek. </p><p>Chan comes to the side of Changbin on the couch and kisses his cheek before pushing Changbin's shoulders down and practically shoving him down onto the couch. Changbin relaxes back on the sofa, a tired Min in his arms. </p><p>The rest slowly join the cuddle pile. Seungmin turns to cradle Minho on one side. Then Chan ushers Felix in before wrapping his arms around the Changbin and Minho bundle. Felix, having squeezed in between Changbin and Chan, drapes an arm over Minho and beckons for the other three to come join them. Soon, Hyunjin takes Jisung's hand and drags them both over to the pile. Jisung, at the last minute, grabs Jeongin and yanks him along with them. Everyone gets settled on the couch, adjusting until they are all comfortable, practically spooning or on top of one another, all surrounding Minho.</p><p>“Better, baby?” Chan says, stroking Minho’s hair.</p><p>Minho opens his eyes and smiles, nuzzling his head into Changbin's shoulder. Even though Minho was taller than Changbin, he managed to curl up and look so small against the other.</p><p>Chan smiles, along with everyone else, happy their boyfriend is doing better.</p><p>Minho yawns, adorable rubbing at his eyes with both of his tiny fists.</p><p>“Those balloons must’ve really scared you, huh?” says Hyunjin, sympathetically looking over at Minho.</p><p>Minho shifts on top of Changbin, to instead turn towards his other side. He looks at Hyunjin with watery eyes and whimpers, nodding at Hyunjin's question.</p><p>“Aw,” Hyunjin says sympathetically, stroking Minho’s messy hair and feeling bad that their boyfriend had been so scared. God knows he hated that damn balloon game almost as much as Minho had.</p><p>“Those balloons were really scary, weren’t they?” Jisung says in agreement with Minho.</p><p>Minho nods and stares at Jisung instead.</p><p>“Don't worry, baby. We’ll protect you,” Jisung smiles triumphantly at Minho.</p><p>The Little smiles, his ears red.</p><p>Minho sticks his thumb back in his mouth and continues sucking lightly. By now his boyfriends have realized that Minho must be in a fairly young headspace. Minho had always been on the younger side of the spectrum, but being scared so much today must have caused him to slip even further than usual.</p><p>Jeongin suddenly wiggles his way out of his boyfriends' arms and limbs and runs to his shared room without explanation.</p><p>The others give each other questioning looks.</p><p>Minho opens his eyes and once he registers Jeongin was gone, his lower lip starts trembling.</p><p>“I- Innie?” the Little says sadly.</p><p>“It’s okay, Min. He’ll be back soon,” reassures Chan.</p><p>Just then, Jeongin returns with a grin on his face.</p><p>The others look in question at him as he makes his way back towards the couch.</p><p>“Inn-ie,” stutters Minho, looking at his boyfriend and wiping his eyes with his hands.</p><p>“'M sorry for leaving, kitten,” Jeongin says, kneeling in front of Minho, who has sat up a little on Changbin.</p><p>Minho whines and makes grabby hands at I.N., who quickly gives Min a comforting hug and then pulls back to show Minho the object in his hands.</p><p>After seeing Minho suck his thumb so much, he got an idea. There have been far too many fans who have given him pacifiers as gifts because he was the youngest in the group.</p><p>Luckily, Stray Kids had a recent fan meet, so Jeongin happened to have one of these pacifiers. Once he remembered, he quickly leapt up from the couch to get it.</p><p>Jeongin gently removes the thumb from Minho’s mouth, which he had unconsciously brought back to his lips after Jeongin pulled away from embracing him.</p><p>Minho gasps at the object in Jeongin's hand.</p><p>“You want it, baby?” he asks, grinning down at Minho.</p><p>Minho opens his mouth a few times, staring at the object in desire, then finally whines at not being able to push out the words. Minho lets out another whine, bouncing slightly on Changbin's lap. The rest of them have sat up slightly to watch the scene taking place in front of them.</p><p>Jeongin laughs and tickles the underside of Minho’s chin, muttering a quick, “It’s okay, Min.”</p><p>I.N. then proceeds to slip the pacifier into Minho’s mouth, who gratefully sucks on it, his eyes opening to look at Jeongin happily.</p><p>Jeongin pets Minho’s hair before being pulled by Seungmin in between him and Changbin to be closer to Minho in the cuddle pile.</p><p>They all watch as Minho relaxes, sucking on his new baby blue pacifier contentedly.</p><p>Felix lets out a sound suspiciously close to a squeal and the rest of his boyfriends let out a coo at Minho’s cuteness.</p><p>With that, Minho snuggles back into his boyfriends' arms, laying back down again. His eyes slowly slip closed and he drifts off into unconsciousness.</p><p>When Minho wakes up, the others are watching a movie on the television at low volume to let their baby sleep. He’s more coherent now but still feeling relatively small. Then, Minho blinks and notices the pacifier in between his lips.</p><p>Minho turns bright red and quickly sits up and takes the pacifier out of his mouth, alerting his boyfriends that he has woken up.</p><p>“Hey, Minho,” speaks Hyunjin, unsure if Minho woke up in headspace or if he wasn’t Little anymore.</p><p>Minho turns red, still on the edge of Littlespace, but embarrassed by the pacifier.</p><p>“S- Sowwy,” Minho clears his throat. “Sorry for uhm- slipping,” he mutters.</p><p>“It’s okay, Min. Don't apologize,” Felix states.</p><p>“Are you still Little, kitten?” Jisung asks, questioning of the way Minho slurred his words together at first.</p><p>Minho hesitates, looking down while his cheeks turn flushed.</p><p>“...No,” he says quietly, looking away from his boyfriends.</p><p>“Baby,” Chan starts gently. “It’s okay if you’re still feeling small.”</p><p>Minho whines, turning red in the face and then muttering, “O’tay.” </p><p>Minho turns away embarrassed and Jisung launches himself at the blushing boy, causing him to squeak and then dissolve into child-like giggles. Felix giggles along with Minho at the scene and Hyunjin and Chan laugh at Jisung's antics.</p><p>“Here, baby. Want your pacifier?” asks Seungmin.</p><p>Minho babbles happily in response, quickly slipping comfortably back into Littlespace.</p><p>Seungmin smiles brightly and slips the pacifier into Minho’s mouth, curling up on Minho’s other side.</p><p>Hyunjin turns back on the television, grabbing the remote and turning on a Disney movie for their Min.</p><p>A little while later, Felix jumps up from his cozy spot on the couch in a panic.</p><p>“WE FORGOT THE GROCERIES!” he screeches before anybody can ask him what’s wrong.</p><p>The short silence is interrupted by Chan letting out a laugh and soon all of the lovers are joining in, even Minho, although he’s mostly just laughing at his boyfriend's reaction and doesn’t fully grasp the situation.</p><p>“We will get them tomorrow. This time the rest of us will go,” Chan reassures as Felix sinks back into the couch, a smile on his face.</p><p>Jisung lets out a loud complaint until a Little Minho interrupts him.</p><p>“S-Sungie,” he slurs. “B- Be gwood”</p><p>The others laugh at Minho’s words, muttering, “Yeah, Jisung. Be good. You heard the baby.”</p><p>Jisung laughs and places a kiss on Minho’s forehead, while they all chuckle happily.</p>
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